Science fair projects with household items from the kitchen

What to expect

The kitchen is the best-stocked lab in the house, and nothing here goes past what's in the cupboard. Vinegar and baking soda are the strongest things used, and both are food. Hot water appears in only a few projects, and a grown-up always pours it. Anything that's tested isn't eaten afterwards, and the page says so.

Most kitchen projects are about mixing, melting and dissolving, and they give clean numbers: seconds, minutes, centimetres. They're also easy to repeat three times, because the ingredients are cheap. Put a tray or a towel down first.

Counted from the projects on this page: 8 about how things move, 38 about water, ice and mixing, 2 about growing and weather; 48 using kitchen things. 30 are free with what most houses have, and the rest cost about $2 or about $1 or about $3. Testing takes from 1 to 5 days. 12 have a step a grown-up does, marked on the page.